with president barack obama and it is not entirely clear at this point when that meeting will take place and details are still being hammered out and we saw today a blistering series of rhetorical jabs from one side to the other and it's not clear as a result of all that whether a deal can, in fact, get hammered out in the remaining time before new year's eve and take a listen to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell earlier today explaining the problems he's facing in washington. take a listen. >> the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here and as i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. and republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. >> we do know that the house of representatives has been told that the members there should be back in town here in washington expecting votes on sunday at 6:30 p.m. on sunday and we don't be what that will be and we should get more clarity on that tomorrow if there is, in account fa, a meeting at the white house we m